Visit this page often for the stories behind the books; stories in independent publishing and independent bookselling; stories from our communities about the work being done to keep reading alive and to foster literacy; and stories about freedom of expression in this country. You can email dorothea@labyrinthbooks.com with suggestions and comments.

A lot is changing at Labyrinth Books:
At the beginning of November, we are opening a new store in Princeton. This will be the largest of our stores yet.
We are excited about having found a shared vision at Princeton of the
importance of an independent bookstore to intellectual and cultural
life. Like our store in New Haven,
the Princeton store is a fully independent community bookstore
celebrating thought, debate, and the life of the imagination and
serving all readers from child to seasoned scholar.

Also important news is the fact that we have sold our interests in
the store at Columbia University in order to concentrate on our new
projects. Our former partner, Chris Doeblin, now owns and
has taken on full responsibility for the store in Morningside Heights
under the new name of Book Culture.
This change will allow us to continue the work of what we
have been building and to keep our commitment to reading and the
printed word vital. Our two other stores (New Haven & Princeton), our
catalog, our website, and our wholesale book business are owned and
run exclusively by us. We wish Chris and Book Culture every success
in the still shared enterprise of creating and maintaining
independent bookstores against all odds as part of the fabric of
civil society.

Here, we feature books by authors whose freedom of expression has at one time or another faced a serious challenge. We also post news items concerning the urgent issue of First Amendment rights today.

James Baldwin
"Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated and this was an immutable law." -J.B.
"It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." -J.B.

In 1963, Another Country was banned from the New Orleans Public Library because it was considered obscene. It was restored the following year. Blues for Mr. Charlie was challenged in 1980 in South Dakota because, it was claimed, "it tears down Christian principles." Go Tell it on the Mountain was challenged twice as recently as in the 1990s for its sexual content.